1A Goodsons Mews, Wellington Street, Thame, OX9 3BX
1A Goodsons Mews, Wellington Street, Thame, OX9 3BX
Chemical Industry
Case Study
“The Tank Had Never Been So Clean”
In order to prevent contamination and spoilage, after each batch of product is finished, the tank and entire production apparatus must be thoroughly cleaned. This involves rinsing with a flexible hose, brushing the tank manually, and even completely filling the tank with soap and clean water then turning the agitator on for 48 hours. In total, each cleaning cycle was using enormous quantities of water, chemicals and energy.
The waste water from this cleaning was then vented into two 125m3 (125,000L) effluent pits before being discharged into the Anglian Water sewage network. With multiple large tanks being cleaned daily, so much effluent was produced that the waste tanks almost filled to the brim every day.
Compounding this problem, in order to be permissible to flush into the sewer system, this effluent often had to be diluted. However, with the tanks already close to full, this regularly lead to them overflowing.
Our client needed a new tank cleaning approach that would drastically reduce the amount of water required for each clean. As a side effect this would also cut the spend on water per cleaning.
Large Quantities Wasted
Water Tanks Filled Constantly
Regular Overflowing
After weighing up the potential options, the client opted for the Alfa Laval TJ 20G Rotary Jet Head. This was trialled in a “Worst Case Scenario” – a white pigment tank that had not been cleaned in several weeks. This white pigment used Titanium Dioxide (TiO2), a highly abrasive and difficult to clean chemical.
The trial was an enormous success. Water and electricity usage were reduced to almost a tenth of their original amount, the quantity of soap needed was more than halved, and the production manager commented that “the tank had never been so clean”.
To improve the effluent going to the waste water pit, a cyclone separator was introduced which dramatically reduced the level of particulates by over 95%, creating a truly sustainable solution.
The Alfa Laval TJ 20G rotary jet head provides 3D indexed impact cleaning over a defined time period. It is automatic and represents a guaranteed means of achieving quality assurance in tank cleaning.
